Handel - Concerto Op.4 No.1 in G Minor, HWV 289 (The Organ Concerto) Bach - Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248. Bach - St. John Passion, BWV 245 - Part One. Baroque sacred music - oratorio. Baroque era is known for its several grand forms of church music, including the passion, the oratorio, or the cantata. They were all based on texts refering to the sacred religious book (Bible), although the setting was different between these three music forms.
The passion was based on Jesus' suffering and was based on the Gospel texts, the Oratorio was more poetic and could be about any other Biblical story, while cantatas were based on Biblical texts. It is quite remarkable that in the midst of separation between the sacred and the secular, composers wrote for both of the worlds. They didn't necessarily fought on either side of the schism. A standard device that was used to accompany the singers in the church music, but that was borrowed from the opera, was basso continuo. Oratorio contained a biblical story, or a life of a saint, all described in an opera form (!)
Home Theory Science Sheet Music E-zine Contact us. Oratorio. History[edit] 1600, origins of the oratorio[edit] Although medieval plays such as the Ludus Danielis, and Renaissance dialogue motets such as those of the Oltremontani had characteristics of an oratorio, the first oratorio is usually seen as Emilio de Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo. Monteverdi composed Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda which can be considered as the first secular oratorio. 1650–1700[edit] By the mid-17th century, two types had developed: Lasting about 30–60 minutes, oratorio volgares were performed in two sections, separated by a sermon; their music resembles that of contemporary operas and chamber cantatas. oratorio latino (in Latin) – first developed at the Oratorio del Santissimo Crocifisso, related to the church of San Marcello al Corso in Rome.
The late baroque oratorio[edit] In the late baroque oratorios increasingly became "sacred opera". The oratorio in Georgian Britain[edit] The Victorian oratorio[edit] 20th-century oratorios[edit]